General Motors’ self-driving taxi division, Cruise, has offered a settlement of $75,000 in a court case brought by the California Public Utilities Commission. The case arose after one of Cruise’s autonomous vehicles was involved in a collision with a pedestrian. California regulators accused Cruise of misleading them “through omission” in relation to the crash.
The incident occurred on October 2, 2023, when a pedestrian in San Francisco was hit by a Cruise robotaxi after being struck by a hit-and-run human driver. Cruise notified California regulators about the collision but failed to mention that the autonomous vehicle had engaged in a pullover maneuver, causing the pedestrian to be dragged an additional 20 feet at a speed of 7 mph.
This incident was the most severe in a series of mishaps involving Cruise’s driverless Chevrolet Bolt EVs. As a result, Cruise’s testing permit was suspended by California, leading the company to withdraw all its U.S. vehicles from the roads. CEO Kyle Vogt and chief product officer Dan Kan resigned in November, and the workforce was reduced by 24% in December. Additionally, the production of the Origin driverless pod, designed to carry multiple passengers without a steering wheel, has been put on hold indefinitely.
To settle the California case, Cruise has offered $75,000. This figure comes at a time when General Motors has already faced significant losses of over $8 billion since 2016. Despite initial optimistic predictions from CEO Mary Barra that the driverless cab business could generate $50 billion in revenue by the end of the decade, the current circumstances suggest this target is highly unlikely to be achieved.